A common refrain found on plenty of email marketing blogs from around the web implores you and the rest of the reading audience to “think like an email marketing expert.” On the surface, this sounds like a great idea and one that’s sure to enhance your reach and impact in the inbox.The only problem? Thinking like an expert in this – or any other – field requires countless hours of experience managing the process, as well as an acute understanding of current trends and best practices. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to tackle this process from a different, more effective angle.Instead of aiming to immediately become an email marketing expert – something that simply isn’t feasible – we’ll instead cover the finer points of how to start thinking like a seasoned veteran of this industry. This way, you can move forward with a strong fundamental take on the inbox outreach process, as well as how best to enhance and expand your understanding of the email marketing landscape.
Understand Your Campaign’s Unique Pain Points
The first key facet of the expert mindset, according to Anum Hussain of the HubSpot Blog, comes from a willingness to search out and recognize your brand’s specific pain points. Without this viewpoint leading the way, it won’t be long before you find that improving – or even simply maintaining – your standing in the inbox becomes a task of Herculean proportions.In some cases, failing to understand the need for pain point recognition can also lead to damaging choices and decisions that come with lasting negative ramifications. Specifically, Hussain points to purchasing email contact lists, shoddy message design, and skipping over segmentation as symptoms of this pain point issue.Unfortunately, pain points aren’t universal across all brands, so taking on this expert mentality doesn’t just come from looking for certain common problems, but rather by adapting and molding your review of your current operations to the parameters of your situation. A true expert is willing to put forth the time and effort needed to honestly evaluate their campaign, as well as move forward with these concerns and findings leading the way.
Commit to Constant A/B Testing
Another key facet of an “expert mentality” comes from placing an emphasis on testing every piece of the email marketing puzzle. From subject lines and timing, to message frequency and embedded calls-to-action (CTAs), every decision, component, or asset found within your outreach process deserves to come under a high level of scrutiny.Does this method end up requiring a significant amount of time, effort, and hard work from your end of the equation? Of course it does. However, experts in any field or industry understand that excellence only arises from constant improvement and innovation; things that only can only be brought to light via the insight generated by regular A/B testing.
Embrace the Power of Automation
Speaking of hard work and effort, Neil Patel of Search Engine Journal points out that the best email marketing experts around also know how to cut down on this workload via automated tools like autoresponders and triggered messages. Essentially, adding an appreciation of automation not only helps you manage a campaign like an expert, it also gives you the tools needed to expedite the process and free up your time to address other issues and practices.It is important to note that automating for the sake of automating can be just as destructive as the gains from properly implementing these tools are beneficial. Fortunately, if you apply this expert understanding to the process and embrace automation responsibly, then you can maintain a high level of consistency within your inbox-based services and offerings.
Don’t Be Afraid to Reuse and Recycle
Finally, email marketing experts aren’t afraid to reuse and recycle valuable content. Whether you’re pulling from curated content on social media, or simply repurposing an old email for a new campaign, there’s no reason not to extract even more value out of already crafted selections.Again, the big key here is that an email marketing expert isn’t afraid to work hard at his or her craft. However, if there’s an opportunity to lessen the workload and generate extra value along the way by reusing or renovating old content, then there’s nothing wrong with leveraging this kind of approach.At the end of the day, becoming an email marketing expert isn’t something that happens overnight – there’s no point in thinking otherwise. Thankfully, with everything you learned here leading the way, you can confidently take the first step toward achieving this mindset and reaping all of the rewards that come with an expertly managed email marketing campaign.
